SKI charity organisation hits the ground running

Publishing Date : 03 October, 2018

Author : DAVE BAAITSE

Scores of Batswana sympathetic to former President Lt Gen Ian Khama’s charitable deeds have group themselves and stabled a new charitable organisation to help the former president to advance his charitable course around the country.

The organization carries an interesting name ‘SKI’ which may sound like the initials of Khama himself but SKI is an acronym for Secure your Knowledge through Innovation. The orgnaisation currently has about thirty members confirmed on their database but more people are reportedly calling to join in. With Khama no longer at the number one office, it has become apparent that mobilising resources to continue his noble gesture of charity work is no longer simple.

Having dedicated his entire life to public office and to charity work, the former president who is continuing his mother’s legacy is known for initiatives such as housing appeal, donation of blankets, sponsoring football tournaments and the popular soup kitchen serving amongst others.To support this noble course, a group of Batswana teamed-up and formed SKI which its mission is not only to support the charity work but to help alleviate poverty through refined workshops aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship amongst communities.

The organisation chairman Rollen Galeboe said the idea is not to only donate but help Batswana to be self- reliant using the resources surrounding them. “Right now there is a tribal land in Pilikwe which they are working around the clock to engage the community to utilise, engage in commercial farming that will benefit the whole community”, he said.

He emphasised that the idea to help Khama mobilise resources was born from a pool of people who are more experienced and have worked with various charities before including Red Cross and others. “These men and women are very determined and they know what they talking about,” said Galeboe. The determined team has already hit the ground running. On Wednesday they were part of those who joined former President Khama in Francistown West where he held a Kgotla meeting.

They were donating hampers and helping with donation of blankets and the soup kitchen. In an interview with WeekendPost the former President confirmed working with SKI and appreciated them for their generosity in helping other Batswana.
He said they will be joining another group which is the Super XI Football Team. The newly formed football team has now become part and puzzle of Khama’s local travels participating in football tournaments wherever he is addressing Kgotla meetings.

According to Khama, they take these young men from streets and try to engage them while at the same time finding employment for them. Whenever one of them leaves they find replacement for the 15 men squad and the boys have a monthly allowance all paid wholly by the office of the former president plus the bonus when they win tournaments.

Having had the opportunity to travel with the team to Gcwihaba two weeks back, the free spirited boys are very hardworking helping with charity work wherever possible and participating in any other activities something the former president is proud of. They toured the caves with a team of private media who were there to report on this exciting feature for the first time at the invitation of Khama. They later played a friendly match against Gcwihaba where they won 10- 1.